Digital books cannot be resold according to court ruling

According to news in the Bookseller, this morning, a German court has ruled that digital books cannot be resold by purchasers.

The German District Court of Bielefeld ruled that digital and audiobooks were not subject to “exhaustion of the rights of the author” in the same way that physical books were in a recent court ruling, according to Publishers Weekly.

Last July, the Court of Justice of the European Union upheld purchasers’ rights to resell software through UsedSoft. However the German court has said digital books are distinct from software, and cannot be resold.

The Booksellers Association in Germany has “welcomed” the court¹s ruling.